Water The Grass Series

Ten Words to Live By: Do not commit adultery

Exodus 20: 14, Matthew 5:27-30

Patter Jefferson M. Williams

Chenoa Baptist Church

9-14-2025

Your Cheatin’ Heart

What do you get when you play country music backwards? You get your house back, your dog back, your truck back, and your wife back.

All music addresses cheating but country music is the genre that most often references it in the songs.

From Hank Williams, Sr’s “Your Cheatin’ Heart,” to “Jolene” by Dolly Parton, to “White Liar” by Miranda Lambert, to Randy Travis’s “On the Other Hand,” country music gets to the heart of the matter when it comes to adultery.

But these songs, and others, don’t really capture the utter betrayal, the sickening sadness and anger, the lostness one feels when they find out their spouse has been unfaithful.

Over my time in ministry, I have sat with men and women weeping because their spouses have made a willful choice to commit adultery. It is heartbreaking.

God’s desires our best. God designed us in a way that if we do things His way, we thrive. And when we choose to ignore His commandments, we only bring guilt, shame, and pain into our lives.

Review

We continue our series called, “Ten Words to Live By.” We know them as the “The Ten Commandments” although that name is never used in the Bible.

In Hebrew, this top ten list is known as the “Ten Words,” or Decalogue, and we find them in Exodus 20.

Pastor John Miller reminds us of three reasons the ten words were given:

* God is holy

* Man is sinful and we need a Savior

* Shows us how to live

They are less rules about what to do and tell us more about who God is to us:

1. One God - God is God.

2. No idols - God is Creator.

3. Revere His Name - God is holy

4. Remember to Rest - God is Rest

5. Honor Parents - God is Father

6. No murder - God is Life

7. No adultery - God is Faithful

8. No stealing - God is a Provider

9. No lying - God is Truth

10. No coveting - God is Sufficient

The ten words are divided into two groups. The first four cover our relationship with God. The last six detail our relationship with others.

Jesus was asked by a teacher of the Law what the greatest commandment was and He responded:

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40)

The four commandments are how we love God with all that we are.

The second six commandments are how we love our neighbor.

Let me lay out where we are going this morning. I want to give you a Biblical theology of marriage, a Biblical theology of sex, what this commandment means and prohibits, and how Jesus took it to a whole different level.

Please turn with me first to Genesis 2.

Prayer

Marriage

Marriage is God’s idea and it is a good gift. We see it instituted in chapter two of Genesis:

“The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.  So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.

But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

The man said,“This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh, she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.”

That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.

Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.” (Genesis 2:18-25)

Adam was not meant to be alone. As he named the animals, he saw that each one had its mate but he didn’t have anyone that complimented him.

So God formed Eve out of Adam. One woman uniquely designed and fitted for Adam.

So marriage, according to the Bible, and 3,000 years of recorded history, is one man plus one woman for life. You cannot redefine marriage because God is the one who created it. And He created it in such a way that we thrive in love and partnership with our spouse.